Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden
Dir. Morgan Spurlock, feat Morgan Spurlock (M)
In 2006, director Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me, 30 Days) discovered he was about to be a dad. And then he started to fret about the kind of world his unborn offspring was about to enter.
Of all the scary things going on in the world, terrorism is probably the most likely to put the fear into a New Yorker. Most expectant fathers wouldn't go and make a movie about tackling the cause of that fear, but with the lukewarm-to-freezing support of Mrs Spurlock, that's exactly what our Morgan does.
In keeping with his gonzo filmmaking ethos, there is a lot of Morgan Spurlock in Morgan Spurlock's Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? The man is a master of making the political, personal. Just like in Supersize Me, we see many a late-night, hotel room confession to his Handycam. Few people can make this work on screen, but Spurlock gets away with it.
That Spurlock is simultaneously an objective narrator, host and character in the film can be confusing at times. But the characters he discovers - and the heartfelt and funny situations he finds himself in - make it well worthwhile.
Animation has worked its way into many documentaries in the past few years, and in Where in the World Spurlock has taken it to the next level. Think Mortal Combat: The War On Terror and you're somewhere close.
What Spurlock manages to achieve on his holiday in the Middle East is a far broader depiction of the region, its people and politics than has so far been committed to popular feature-length documentary. His tour is extensive: Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Morocco, Pakistan - oh, and Brooklyn.
In may respects, Where in the World is a fairly conventional doco. It covers the same ground that has been covered in umpteen ways for the good part of the last decade. Yes, the United States government has and does support oppressive regimes. Yes, the United States army bungled its best chance to nab Bin Laden back in 2001. And yes, pretty much everyone in the world agrees the bearded bomber is probably in the tribal region of Pakistan.
What Spurlock has deliberately nailed here (and it's certainly not Bin Laden) - and much more successfully than his documentary predecessor Michael Moore - is the humanity on the other side of the war on terror. The people he encounters on the streets are far more likeable than the World Trade Centre bombing victims Moore thrusts in front of the camera in Fahrenheit 9/11. Spurlock covers a lot of ideas, travels extensively and has gathered together a timely snapshot of life on the other side of the conflict.